Magnetic resonance system

Abstract: A quadrature multiple coil array (30) in a magnetic resonance system, e.g. for medical diagnostic imaging, includes a plurality of quadrature coil pairs (50₁, 50₂ .., 50 n ). Each coil pair includes a loop coil (52) or other coil which is sensitive to radio frequency signal components that are perpendicular to the coil and a flat Helmholtz coil (54) or other coil which is sensitive to radio frequency components parallel to the plane of the coil. The coils of each of the quadrature coil pairs are overlapped (56) by an amount which minimizes coupling between the coils. This enables resonance signals to be picked-up concurrently in quadrature by each of the quadrature pairs and to be demodulated by a corresponding series of receivers (32₁, 32₂, ..., 32 n ). The data from the overlapping regions to which each quadrature pair is sensitive are reconstructed into image representations. The image representations are aligned either automatically or by the operator and displayed on a video monitor (44). The overlapping quadrature coil pairs can be arranged along a planar substrate (58) or along a curved substrate which confirms to contours of the anatomy of a subject.

Description: The present invention relates to the magnetic resonance systems. It finds particular application in conjunction with radio frequency (RF) surface coil arrays for use m systems for use in medical diagnostic applications of magnetic resonance imaging and will be described with particular reference thereto. However the present invention also finds application with coil arrays for use in magnetic resonance systems for use in other techniques such as spectroscopy, imaging for other than medical diagnostic purposes, and the like. Conventionally, magnetic resonance imaging procedures include the excitation of magnetic resonance of selected dipoles within a subject and receiving the magnetic resonance signals emanating from the dipoles. In many applications, the magnetic resonance signals are received with whole body RF coils, i.e. circularly cylindrical RF coils which surround the patient receiving bore of the magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. WO-A-93 03393, discloses a pair of overlapping birdcage coils which are magnetically isolated from each other by the overlap geometry. In other applications, a surface coil is applied to a surface of the patient adjacent the area of interest while the patient is located within the bore to receive the magnetic resonance signals emanating from the resonating nuclei. Various surface coil configurations have been utilized. A simple loop, e.g. a simple square or circle, coils have been utilized to receive the magnetic resonance signals. Loop coils are sensitive to signal components that are perpendicular to the loop and insensitive to components in the plane of the loop. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, quadrature surface coils have been utilized to examine a region of interest in quadrature, i.e. receive signal components that are perpendicular to the coil and components that are parallel to the coil. See, for example, Figure 4 in DE-A-40 30 371. Another example is US Patent No. 4,918,388 which includes a loop coil and a flat Helmholtz coil, both of which receive resonance signals from the same region. The loop and flat Helmholtz coils are sensitive to orthogonal components of the magnetic resonance signal. When the output of one of the loop and flat Helmholtz coils is phase shifted by 90° and the two signals are combined, the signal-to-noise ratio is improved by about the square root of 2. In order to examine larger regions, surface coils consisting of a plurality of loop coils have been used. See, for example, US Patent No. 4,825,162 of Roemer and Edelstein. More specifically, a series of loop coils are partially overlapped in order to examine contiguous regions. As explained mathematically by Grover in "Inductance Calculations" (1946) and summarized in the Roemer and Edelstein patent, the mutual inductance between adjacent coils is minimized when the coils are positioned with a slight overlap. Although the use of overlapped loop coils with the induction minimized enabled a larger area to be examined, each coil was linear, i.e. only sensitive to the perpendicular component. No quadrature detection was provided. It has also been proposed (1993 IEEE International Magnetics Conference (Intermag'93), Stockholm, Sweden, page HC05 D A Molyneaux et al 'Quadrature Coil System for Simultaneous Reception') to overlap a pair of planar quadrature coils to minimize mutual inductance between the quadrature coils. Another surface coil technique for examining a larger area includes positioning a series of coils in a partially overlapping relationship. However, instead of selecting an overlap which minimized the mutual inductance between the loop coils, alternate linear coils are 90° out of phase from each other, i.e. orthogonal, to eliminate the mutual inductance. See US Patent No. 4,721,913 of Hyde, et al. In the Hyde, et al. patent, the series of linear coils were arranged contiguous to each other to examine partially overlapping regions. The polarity of the coils alternates between orthogonal component sensitive coils and parallel component sensitive coils. In accordance with the present invention there is provided a coil array for placement within a bore of a magnetic resonance system for receiving radio frequency resonance signals from resonating nuclei in an examination region, the coil array comprising: a first quadrature coil pair including a first perpendicular component sensitive coil sensitive to resonance signal components perpendicular to the first quadrature coil pair from a first subregion of the examination region and a first parallel component sensitive coil sensitive to resonance signal components parallel to the first quadrature coil pair from the first subregion of the examination region; and a second quadrature coil pair including a second perpendicular component sensitive coil sensitive to resonance signal components perpendicular to the second coil pair from a second subregion of the examination region and a second parallel component sensitive coil sensitive to resonance signal components from the second subregion which are parallel to the second coil pair, the first and second subregion being partially overlapping, wherein a first portion of the coil array extends along a plane and a second portion of the coil array extends along a curved surface. An advantage of the present invention is that the coils are able to fit certain anatomical areas of interest. One magnetic resonance system in accordance with the invention incorporating coil arrays in accordance with the invention will now be described, by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of the magnetic resonance system; Figure 2 is a detailed view of a known planar quadrature coil array; Figure 3 is a graphic representation of coupling between loop coils of Figure 2, with the different curves representing different amounts of overlap along an edge orthogonal to the z-axis; Figure 4 illustrates coupling between flat Helmholtz coils of Figure 2 for different amounts of overlap along an edge orthogonal to the central or z-axis; Figure 5 illustrates coupling between an adjacent loop and flat Helmholtz coil of Figure 2 as a function of overlap; Figure 6 is a schematic of interface circuitry for each quadrature coil pair of Figure 2; Figure 7 illustrates a first quadrature multiple coil array according to the invention with one of the quadrature pairs flat such as for placement below the spine and another quadrature pair curved such as for conformity to a patient's neck; Figure 8 is a second quadrature multiple coil array according to the invention in which a pair of loop coils for sensitivity perpendicular to their plane are arranged in a plane and a pair of double loop coils are arranged along intersecting angled planes, e.g. at about 135°; and Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of interface circuitry for a multiple coil array. Referring to Figure 1, the system includes a primary superconducting or inductive magnets 10 which create a temporally constant magnetic field through an examination region or central bore 12. Gradient field coils 14 under control of a gradient field coil means 16 selectively cause magnetic field gradients or gradient pulses across the main magnetic field. A radio frequency transmitter 20 supplies radio frequency signals or pulses to a radio frequency coil 22 which surrounds the bore 12. The radio frequency transmitter and the whole body radio frequency coil are tuned to match a resonance frequency of preselected dipoles in the subject at the magnetic field strength of the primary magnets 10. A sequence control means 24 controls the radio frequency transmitter 20 and the gradient coil control 16 in order to cause conventional magnetic resonance imaging sequences to be implemented. A quadrature, multiple coil array 30 receives resonance signals from the resonating dipoles within the subject. The quadrature coils of the array 30 convey the quadrature signals to a corresponding multiplicity of receivers 32 1 , 32 2 , ..., 32 n . A corresponding plurality of data memory means 34 1 , 34 2 ..., 34 n store the magnetic resonance data lines demodulated by the receivers. A reconstruction means 36 includes a series of inverse two-dimensional Fourier transform means which transform the data lines from the data memories 34 into a corresponding series of overlapping images which are stored in an image memory 38. Optionally, an image alignment means 40 may align and piece together the multiple images. Anatomical markers may be disposed at various points along the common image regions of the quadrature coil pairs of the multiple coil array 30 to simplify the image alignment procedure. Alternately, a single marker on the coil and a lookup table which identifies the spatial position of each coil relative to the marker can be utilized. A video processor 42 converts selected image data from the image memory 38 into appropriate format for display on the video monitor 44. With reference to Figure 2, a known planar quadrature multi-coil array 30 is described for ease of understanding the theory behind the present invention described with reference to Figures 7 and 8. The known coil array 30 includes two quadrature coil pairs (50 1 , 50 2 ) which include coils 52 1 , 52 2 which are sensitive to signal components orthogonal to the plane of the coils, e.g. square loop coils. The quadrature pairs further include coils 54 1 , 54 2 which are sensitive to electromagnetic signal components parallel to the plane of the coil, e.g. flattened Helmholtz coils or double loop coils. The perpendicular component sensitive coils and the parallel component sensitive coils are mounted to have substantially the same fields of view. The coils have an overlap region 56 orthogonal to the z-axis in which the four coils are partially overlapping. Preferably, the perpendicular component sensitive coils 52 and the parallel component sensitive coils 54 are mounted on opposite faces of a thin dielectric substrate 58. The perpendicular and parallel component sensitive coils 52 and 54 should be sensitive to fields which are orthogonal to each other for true quadrature detection. The individual coils of each quadrature pair are physically dimensioned and positioned such that sensitivity is orthogonal and there is minimum mutual inductance. Due to imperfections in the coils, their mounting, or even the normal environment in which the coils are used, the two coils 52, 54 may not be truly orthogonal to each other. To simplify manufacturing, the coils 52 1 and 52 2 include additional conductors 60 1 and 60 2 in parallel with one of the loop conductors 62 1 and 62 2 parallel to the z-axis. Adjustable reactances 64 1 and 64 2 selectively adjust the amount of current flowing through conductors 60 1 and 60 2 relative to conductors 62 1 and 62 2 in order to minimize the mutual inductance between coils 52 and coil 54. Alternately, analogous adjustable reactances can be added to coils 54 to adjust the mutual inductance relative to coils 52. With reference to Figure 3, the mutual inductance between the perpendicular component sensitive coils 52, particularly the illustrated square loop coils, is dependent on the spacing or amount of overlap of the coils. As shown in Figure 3, the amount of mutual inductance can be minimized for a given frequency by adjusting the amount of overlap. Similarly, as illustrated in Figure 4, the mutual inductance between the parallel component sensitive coils 54 can be minimized by adjusting their overlap. Analogously, as shown in Figure 5, the amount of coupling between adjacent coils which are sensitive to fields orthogonal to each other is independent of overlap due to their orthogonal nature. The amount of overlap and, where necessary, the physical size of the coils, are adjusted in accordance with Figures 3, 4, and 5 to minimize the coupling or mutual inductance between the coils. With reference to Figure 6, the perpendicular component sensitive coil 52 and the parallel component sensitive coil 54 of each of the quadrature coil pairs 50 are interconnected to produce a single output signal. More specifically, each of the coils 52 which are sensitive to fields perpendicular to the coil is connected with a matching circuit 70. Each of the coils 54 which are sensitive to fields parallel to the coil is connected with a matching circuit 72. A quadrature combiner and phase shifter 74 shift the phase of the output of each coil of the quadrature pair 50 by +45° and -45° respectively, and sums or combines the signals into a single output. Preferably, each of the output signals is amplified by a preamplifier 76 also mounted with the quadrature multiple coil array 30 for insertion into the bore amplifies the output signals before they are conveyed to their respective receivers 32 1 , 32 2 , ..., 32 n . Although the quadrature pair is illustrated as including a rectangular loop coil and a flat Helmholtz coil of substantially square design, other coils are also contemplated. For example, the loop coil can be square, rectangular, circular, elliptical, or combinations thereof. Counter-rotating loop coils and double loop coils, such as loop coils disposed above and below the subject, can also be utilized. The coil which is sensitive to magnetization parallel to the plane instead of being a flat Helmholtz coil can also be a butterfly coil, a planar pair, or the like. In accordance with the invention and with reference to Figure 7, the quadrature pairs 50 are not positioned on a planar substrate. Rather, the pairs are placed on a substrate which is curved or contoured to conform to cylindrical, elliptical, or other body shapes such as the torso, the knee, the head, and the like. For portions of the body which change curvature, such as between the neck and back, at least one quadrature pair 50 1 is flat for disposition along the spine under the patient's back and another quadrature pair 50 2 is curved for conformity to the patient's neck. Additional flat quadrature pairs may be provided to extend the imaging region further down the patient's back. Analogously, additional curved quadrature pairs may be provided for extending the imaging region further along the patient's head. In another embodiment of the invention and with reference to Figure 8, a plurality of half curved Helmholtz coils 54 1 , 54 2 are curved to fit other anatomical structures such as orbits of the eye or a single knee. The Helmholtz coil halves lie along surfaces which intersect at an angle 80 and the loop coils 52 1 , 52 2 are flat. With reference to Figure 9, alternately, instead of conveying combined analog signals from the coils to the receivers 32, as in Figure 1, a receiver can be provided for each of the coils 52 and 54 of the multiple coil array. The receivers are preferably digital receivers which demodulate and digitize the received resonance signals. Of course, twice as many amplifiers are required when the signals from the loop and Helmholtz coils are not combined prior to being forwarded to the receiver. Other alternatives includes placing a plurality of coils such as illustrated in the preceding examples around a portion of the patient to be imaged. Other combinations of the above examples of curved and flat multiple coil arrays can be used for examining other areas of the patient's torso, the pelvis, or the like. The spaced coil pairs can be rotated in the x-y plane, provided there is sufficient spacing between the multiple coil assemblies to minimize their mutual inductance. The above-described embodiments can also be used as double tuned coils for multi-channel spectroscopy imaging such that each nuclei is detected in quadrature. Although the preferred embodiment describes exciting the magnetic resonance with the whole body radio frequency coil 22, it is to be appreciated that the above-described surface coils can also be used in a transmit mode.

Claims: A coil array for placement within a bore of a magnetic resonance system for receiving radio frequency resonance signals from resonating nuclei in an examination region (12), the coil array (30) comprising: a first quadrature coil pair (50 1 ) including a first perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 1 ) sensitive to resonance signal components perpendicular to the first quadrature coil pair (50 1 ) from a first subregion of the examination region (12) and a first parallel component sensitive coil (54 1 ) sensitive to resonance signal components parallel to the first quadrature coil pair (50 1 ) from the first subregion of the examination region; and a second quadrature coil pair (50 2 ) including a second perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 2 ) sensitive to resonance signal components perpendicular to the second coil pair from a second subregion of the examination region (12) and a second parallel component sensitive coil (54 2 ) sensitive to resonance signal components from the second subregion which are parallel to the second coil pair (50 2 ), the first and second subregion being partially overlapping, wherein a first portion of the coil array (30) extends along a plane and a second portion of the coil array (30) extends along a curved surface. A coil array as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the first and second quadrature coil pairs (50 1 50 2 ) are partially overlapping with an amount of overlap which minimizes mutual inductance and coupling between the coils (50 1 , 50 2 ). A coil array as set forth in Claim 2 wherein the first perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 1 ) comprises a single loop coil, a double loop coil, or a counter-rotating loop coil; the second perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 2 ) comprises a single loop coil, a double loop coil, or a counter-rotating loop coil; the first parallel component sensitive coil (54 1 ) comprises a Helmholtz coil, a butterfly coil, or a pair of coils; and the second parallel component sensitive coil (54 2 ) comprises a Helmholtz coil, a butterfly coil, or a pair of coils. A coil array as set forth in Claim 2 or Claim 3 wherein at least one of the coils in each of the quadrature coil pairs (50 1 50 2 ) includes an adjustable asymmetric portion (60 1 or 60 2 ) for electronically adjusting the orthogonality of the quadrature coil pair (50 1 or 50 2 ). A coil array as set forth in any preceding claim wherein the first and second quadrature coils pairs (50 1 , 50 2 ) include first and second loop coils (52 1 52 2 ) and first and second Helmholtz coils (54 1 , 54 2 ). A coil array as set forth in any preceding claim further including: a third quadrature coil pair (50 n ) including a third perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 n ) sensitive to resonance signal components perpendicular to the third quadrature coil pair (50 n ) from a third subregion of the examination region (12) and a third parallel component sensitive coil (54 n ) sensitive to resonance signal components parallel to the third quadrature coil pair (50 u ) from the third subregion of the examination region (12), the second and third subregions being partially overlapping. A coil array as set forth in any preceding claim in a magnetic resonance imaging system comprising a main magnetic field means (10) for generating a temporally constant magnetic field through an examination region (12); a gradient field means (14, 16) for selectively causing gradient magnetic fields across the examination region (12); a resonance excitation means (20, 22) for transmitting radio frequency signals into the examination region (12) to excite selected dipoles within the examination region (12) to resonate; the coil array (30) being disposed within the examination region (12) for receiving radio frequency resonance signals from the resonating nuclei; receiver means (32) connected with the coil array (30) for demodulating magnetic resonance signals therefrom; an image reconstruction means (36) for constructing signals from the receiver means (32) into an image representation; and display means (42, 44) for converting the image representations into human readable displays. A coil array as set forth in Claim 7 further including: a first combiner means (74) for phase shifting and combining the resonance signal components received by the first perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 1 ) and the first parallel component sensitive coil (54 1 ); a second combiner means (74) for phase shifting and combining the resonance signal components received by the second perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 2 ) and the second parallel component sensitive coil (54 2 ); and wherein the receiver means (32) includes: a first receiver (32 1 ) connected with the first combiner means (74); and a second receiver (32 2 ) connected with the second combiner means (74). A coil array as set forth in Claim 7 further including: a first receiver (32 3 ) connected with the first perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 1 ) for demodulating and digitizing resonance signal components received thereby; a second receiver (32 4 ) connected with the first parallel component sensitive coil (54 1 ) for demodulating and digitizing resonance signal components received thereby; a third receiver (32 1 ) connected with the second perpendicular component sensitive coil (52 2 ) for demodulating and digitizing resonance signal components received thereby; and a fourth receiver (32 2 ) connected with the second parallel component sensitive coil (54 2 ) for demodulating and digitizing resonance signal components received thereby. A coil array as set forth in Claim 7 wherein the resonance excitation means includes a radio frequency transmitter (20) connected with the quadrature phased array coil assembly (30) such that the quadrature phased array coil assembly (30) functions in both transmit and receive modes.

Inventors: MOLYNEAUX DAVID A, MOLYNEAUX, DAVID A.
Applicants: PICKER INT INC, PICKER INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Application year: 1994
Main classification: G01R33
IPC codes: G01R33, A61B5